


Beginnings

by CassRed_64



Series: OC Prompts 2020 [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 31 Days Writing Challenge, Family Bonding, Little Romance, Other, Post-Apocalypse, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt, brief chase scene, in the future, introduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassRed_64/pseuds/CassRed_64
Summary: The start of a prototype novel set in a post-apocalypse future where humans aren't the dominant species anymore and robots have become sentient and are the sole survivors of the old world.The story revolves around the adventures of a human girl named Kala who is adopted by two robots named Ja and Alyx. They develop human emotions and form a family relationship with the human girl and learn about being human while teaching what they know about humans to a curious girl who thinks she is a robot-like them.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Character(s)
Series: OC Prompts 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994638





	Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is based on an OCtober prompt list by @oc-growth-and-development on Tumblr. 
> 
> I will be writing for each prompt on their list on my own time since I have a full-time job and can't fully write for each day. Will use their prompt list to help me test ideas for my future novel that I wish to write. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this small story :)

In the distance was a grassy open field, there were numerous flowers of different shapes and sizes. In the field were two robots and a human child. The child had long red wavy hair that flowed in the wind and her skin was tan, she was named Kala. The robots were six feet tall with silver plating covering every inch of the two, the only difference between the two robots was eye color and the wear out on the robot’s hands and feet. One robot had green eyes, his name was Ja and the other had dark blue eyes, her name was Alyx. 

The child roamed curiously all around touching everything that their little hands could grab in front of them. It was a new area that they had never seen before, all of a sudden something in the forest ahead catches the child’s eye. The child runs ahead of the two robots to see what could have made the noise. Moments after, the child could hear a small noise coming in the direction of some nearby bushes. 

“Ja, Alyx come here!” Kala excitedly yelled out loud at the two robots. 

Ja was the first to comment, “Kala didn’t we tell you not to run off on your own.” 

Alyx moved ahead of Ja, “relax Ja… What did you want to show us, Kala?” 

“I caught it all by myself!!!” Kala beamed with joy with a smirk on her face as she produced a small boar-like creature from the bushes. 

“Kala! Look at your arms and hands, they have scratch marks on them!” Alyx exclaimed but was stopped midway by her partner Ja. 

“That’s wonderful news Kala! I am proud of you!” Ja explained while running to grab Kala and lift her and the animal in the air, spinning them around. 

Ja tried his best to mimic the human gesture of bonding with his now human daughter. He remembered seeing this done before with humans long ago in his database. Kala didn’t judge her dad’s pose, only laughing and asking Ja to make her and the animal go higher. 

The baby animal squeaked and cried while all of this was being done. Alyx, noticing the distress of the animal calls the two to pay attention to her. 

“Ja put down Kala right now, I need to disinfect her arms and hands. Also, Kala…” Alyx looks at Kala waiting to see if the girl was listening to her. 

Ja stopped spinning Kala around and waited for Kala to process what Alyx had said. 

“Yes, Alyx…” Kala said in a fleeting tone waiting to see if she had made Alyx mad. 

Seeing the look of sadness on the child’s face Alyx comes closer to Kala, “I’m not mad at you, I just don’t want you to get sick or more hurt okay…” 

“I… Understand…” Kala says exhaustingly, “good, now can you let go of the baby animal for me?”

“Why!? I caught it so it’s my best friend now!” Explains Kala getting angry at her mother. 

In the deeper part of the forest, Alyx could feel and hear vibrations from the ground. Alyx quickly sends Ja a hidden message, “remain calm, there is a herd of the creatures like the one Kala is holding coming toward us. Let me try to get Kala to let go of the animal.” 

“I trust you,” Ja replied and held Kala closely. 

“Can’t you hear its cries, it’s a baby like you Kala,” Alyx tries to explain. 

“It’s a baby?” Kala says in wonder while looking at the small boar in her arms. The boar kept squeaking until it made eye contact with Kala. Its ears lowering down, fearful of what the big creature holding it would do to it next. 

“So it’s like me!?” Kala asked with an explosion in her brown eyes, hugging the creature more tightly now. The boar’s cries grew louder, now trying to free itself from Kala’s embrace by clawing away at her arms. 

“I doubt that…” Ja says with certainty but is cut off by Alyx smacking him with her robotic hand onto his mouth, silencing him. 

“What Ja meant to say is that you may not exactly look like this… Boar, pig creature but you are the same age as this creature. Meaning that this little one here probably has a…” 

“Family, like how we are a robot family!?” Kala finished Alyx's statement starting to see now why Alyx wanted her to let go of her new friend. 

Alyx looks at Ja who in return had an awkward expression of confusion and concern. She looked back at Kala, “of course Kala! Just like our family…” 

Ja let Kala down, the little girl turned back in the direction of the bushes, “I will miss my new friend Alyx…” Kala says quietly, she understood now that if someone wanted to take her away from Ja and Alyx she would have cried too. 

“You’re doing the right thing, Kala I am so happy that you understand the creature’s point of view.” 

Kala wanted to ask what Alyx meant but was quickly scooped up by Ja. Ja and Alyx started to run quickly before the boar’s herd came closer to them. 

“Why are we running Ja?” Kala asks worryingly, she started to think that a scary monster had appeared while she was setting the boar free. 

“Kala look behind you, then you can see why,” Alyx quickly chines in while running right beside Ja and Kala. 

Kala looks over Ja’s shoulders and sees hundreds of boars stampeding towards them. Kala grows excited about the rest of the boars and tries to break free from her father’s grip. 

Ja feeling the weight lift off from his arms notices that Kala is now on top of his head. 

“Kala, No! You could fall off!” Ja screams out loud trying to grab his daughter before she could fall off. 

“Ja! I wanna play with all the new friends!” Kala says while trying to grab the boars with one hand and holding her father’s head with the other. 

Ja tries to grab Kala from his head, but Kala jumps off to avoid being caught by him. Without thought, Ja quickly extends his robot arms and grabs Kala by her hand made shirt. Ja quickly throws Kala to Alyx, “Take her somewhere safe, I will deal with the animals!” 

Alyx barely catches Kala, “Whaaa, Ja! Warn me sooner, and will send you the homing position once I find a place.” 

Ja nodded his head, “one more thing, make it back okay…” Alyx says with a hint of worry and dread. 

“I’ll be fine, I am 99.9% sure of it,” Ja reassures Alyx and runs back to distract the animals. 

Alyx holds Kala closer, “Alyx why does Ja get to play with the animals?” Kala was getting fidgety and jealous of her dad getting to play while she was being held by her mom. 

“Sweetie, not right now, Alyx will let you play when we are far from here, okay.” Alyx speeds off, putting Kala into a makeshift baby carrier. 

After a few minutes of running Alyx fines a random cave and scans the area for any signs of life. The scan results showed no living creature in nor out of the cave for years. 

Alyx makes her way into the cave for the time being to hide with Kala still in her carrier. 

“Can Kala get down now?” The little one asks her mom wanting to explore the cave and play. 

“I will put you down if you promise Alyx that you will play only inside the cave, do you understand Kala?” Alyx asks Kala while setting up a fire to keep the human child warm. 

“I do, I do! I wanna play in the cave anyway.” Kala says and sprints out of Alyx’s hands running further into the cave. 

“Don’t wander too far, we are only gonna be here until Ja gets back and see whether or not he is safe,” Alyx calls out to Kala. 

Alyx moves to the entrance of the cave to get a better signal for when Ja would be close by. She had sent her position to Ja and waited for his return. She continued to wait for Ja by the entrance of the cave, it felt like hours to Alyx even though it was only a few minutes based on her timer. 

Kala now bored of exploring makes her way back to the entrance of the cave to see Alyx still waiting for Ja.

“Alyx… Ja is gonna come back… Right..?” Kala could sense the anxiousness pouring from the lone robot, this made her feel uncertain and worried. 

Alyx didn’t understand why Kala would be nervous, “she didn’t notice the danger when they were running,” thought Alyx to herself. 

Alyx still had much to learn when it came to humans, mostly Kala but her mother program told her to at least let Kala know the truth. 

“Kala, Ja normally would have been back by now, I am worried for him. Let’s not make ourselves gloomy, why don’t I make you something to eat while we wait?” 

“No thank you… I want to eat with Ja when he gets home…” Kala said with a seldom frown on her face. 

“What would you like to do then Kala…?” Alyx remembered that humans prefer to ask what they would specifically like to do rather than being told what to do. She hoped it would take Kala’s mind away from negative thoughts about Ja. 

“I want to sit close with you by the fire and you can hug me and tell me the story about humans!” Kala explained, she wanted to feel the warmth of the fire while being held by her mother. 

Kala normally would have been held by Ja when hearing Alyx’s stories but this would be the first time that Kala remembered ever having Alyx hold her. 

“Of course, that can be arranged. Which human story today Kala?” Alyx said, gesturing Kala to move ahead and find a rock to sit close by the fire. 

“You know the one I want Alyx! The one about the human girl who loves her name!” Kala pulls at one of Alyx’s arms pleading with her to tell her the same story from before. 

“I told you that story yesterday, why not a different one today?” Alyx asks Kala seeing if she would get out of recycling old material to talk about. 

“Noooo! I wanna hear that story again! Pleaseeee..?” Groaned out Kala wanting to enjoy her new favorite story. 

Seeing no way out of the story choice, Alyx pats her knees letting Kala know that she can sit on her lap to tell her the story. Kala skips and jumps onto Alyx glistening at her waiting to listen to her favorite story again.

When Alyx finished her story she could hear loud snoring coming from below her. Kala had curled up in a ball around Alyx and had fallen asleep. 

Alyx moved Kala into her arms cradling her while she produced from her back two additional arms. The arms went to work making a soft makeshift bed for Kala to sleep in. Once the bedding was made she had placed Kala slowly inside and waited to see how Kala would react. 

Kala briefly shifted her arms and feet to feel more free and comfortable, once she had found a good position she went back to sleeping peacefully. 

Alyx watches a little of Kala, she was always amazed at how humans needed to recharge in the strangest way possible. At the same time, her mother's program made her experience a human reaction to seeing Kala’s sleep face. 

“Awww,” was all that Alyx said before checking again on Ja’s whereabouts. 

Alyx hearing faint vibrations coming from outside she quickly dashes out of the cave to see if Ja finally had found them. When she was out of the cave she could hear a few trees shake in front of her. 

Right away Alyx puts her guard up ready to protect Kala and herself. She produced from her arms two small circular guns ready to shoot whatever would jump right out at her. 

The figure slowly motions out from the nearby trees out into the open to reveal Ja covered in dry mud and leaves. 

“Alyx put those away, it’s just me… Sorry, I took so long I…” Ja was trying to explain himself to a hostile Alyx when she runs and forcefully grabs and knocks Ja and herself onto the floor. 

“Oww is what I would say if I was human…” Ja says, trying to lighten the mood. 

“You had me and even Kala worried, what took you so long. I was starting to fear that you might not have made it this time…” Alyx explains trying to sound very sad but her voice comes out as a monotone instead. 

“I was leading the animals into their natural habitat where apparently mud helps those creatures to clean themselves up and relax. This is the first time I have ever seen you so worried before…” Ja replies back to Alyx. 

“I know it’s very strange, we have only been partners for five years but when you leave my presence for some reason my makeshift body seems to react the same way as humans would do in this specific situation. You think I’m broken now don’t you..?” Alyx questioned Ja while worrying again but for herself now. 

“I don’t think you are broken at all Alyx, remember I looked you over a week ago for our routine maintenance check.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that, but surely it’s the mother program then!” Alyx tried to explain mostly to herself rather than Ja. 

“Nonsense Alyx, you know after the explosion…” Ja paused briefly thinking about the past, thinking about when he and Alyx had awakened to their new lives becoming more human than before… Ja moved his head back and forth to erase his negative thoughts to go back to finishing his thoughts with Alyx. 

“By some miracle, we robots were allowed to be sentient so it’s now our normal now for the moment… You wanna know how I feel about your embrace?” 

Alyx looked up at Ja nodding her head with her dark blue eyes wide with anticipation at her partner’s answer. 

“I loved your gesture, it also makes my body feel an increase in temperature as well!” Ja excitedly told Alyx while moving closer to Alyx and heading butting her head slightly in his excitement. 

Feeling Ja on her head Alyx makes a squeaky noise while bursting into laughter and hugging Ja tighter. 

Ja hearing Alyx laugh made time slow down altogether for the male robot. He watched how she tried to cover her nonexistent mouth when she couldn’t control how much noise she had made. He cupped Alyx’s hands together to stop herself from hiding what only Ja could describe as the most precious sound he had ever heard from Alyx. 

“Please don’t hide your laugh, it’s so adorable? Cute...Everything!?” Ja frantically tried to find and say the best compliment he could use to explain his actions. 

Alyx watched Ja fumble awkwardly and felt her temperature by her face warm-up, this wasn’t the first time that Ja made her body feel like this. She could never get used to this human emotion but at that moment Ja had calmed her down and made her feel so special. 

Alyx moves her face close to Ja’s, Ja shifting from anxious to silence at Alyx staring at him. His eyes dilate bigger waiting to see what Alyx would do. 

“I would like to warm our heads together if you want to do that…” Before Alyx could finish her thoughts Ja closes his eyes and gently rubs his face on Alyx’s. 

“You know I never refuse this request from you, Alyx… I love you...” Ja says so quietly only Alyx could hear it. 

Upon hearing and feeling Ja on her face, Alyx relaxes at his touch, closes her eyes, and enjoys the warmth of her partner thinking how this day couldn’t get better. 

For a few minutes, the two robots stayed connected rubbing their heads together feeling the other’s warmth radiating from one another making them feel connected and safe. The next moment suddenly their joy is cut off by a strange noise coming from inside the cave. 

“Ja, you heard that right!?” Alyx asked first, worried about Kala who was still napping in the cave.

“Yes I heard that, where’s Kala?” Ja asks remembering all of a sudden since it was so quiet while enjoying Alyx’s company. 

“In the… Cave…” Alyx says quietly while the realization hits her. 

Both Alyx and Ja quickly sprung up from the floor and ran into the cave ready to take out whatever creature made that noise. As well as to make sure that nothing would happen to Kala. 

Both robots scanned the inside of the cave to get a better idea of who the mystery intruder was. Both the scanners only picked up a small creature who was coming closer in the direction of the two. 

Right away both ready their guns and moved away hiding in waiting by some boulders to see who would come out of the cave. 

Within minutes small footsteps came out of the cave with the sound of yawning and bits of whimpering coming from a tired and sad Kala. 

“Alyx, where you go, you weren’t in the cave… Kala tried to look around but her vision was blurred from only waking up a short time ago. She looked left then right trying to see if she recognized Alyx or Ja in the dark. 

After hearing Kala’s cries, both Alyx and Ja come out from their hiding spots and rush to comfort Kala. 

“Kala, oh thank machines you are alright!” Alyx says while getting a cloth out to dry the girl’s eyes. 

“We thought you were a wild animal and that you were still asleep or worst hiding in the cave,” Ja explained to Kala patting the girl’s head. 

“I thought… You guys left me… I don’t like being alone.” Kala says hiccuping a little thinking the worst had happened to her and her parents.

Both looked at each other before answering Kala, “we would never leave you, besides, who would take care of you if we left you?” 

“I don’t know about Alyx, but without you, I wouldn’t feel happy every time you come over to see what I am working on, I love my new helper!” Ja explains excitedly to Kala. 

Kala perks up at her father’s words, “you mean that Ja, I love helping you too! It’s fun at Ja’s workshop!” 

Alyx grabs Kala and pulls her into her arms, “I feel the same way as Ja, besides who will get to hear all our nice stories at night.” Alyx beams out to the two trying to add to the amusement. 

“Yeah! I love Alyx’s stories, can you tell Kala another, please!” Kala says and while asking for another story, her stomach interrupts her by growling loudly making everyone go silence 

“Why don’t we have something to eat first, then your bedtime story, okay?” Alyx asks Kala. 

Ja only nods while quietly trying not to laugh at his daughter’s priorities. Alyx only jabs Ja with her elbow to make him stop. 

“Yeah! I wanted to eat when Ja came back and now we can!” Kala explains with her feet kicking back and forth with anticipation for her food. 

Ja stopped laughing and was touched by Kala’s patience, “I wanted to have dinner with you too Kala, Alyx let’s get the food ready so Kala will get enough sleep.” 

Kala couldn’t wait to spend time with Alyx and Ja, the two robots quietly moved from the outside into the cave getting ready to work together to feed their growing girl. 


End file.
